There is a point during dinner at 32 East when I stop trying to work out exactly where in Asia I am supposed to be.
It happens somewhere between a bowl of jhol momo and a plate of crispy vegetable sushi. By then, edamame and truffle dumplings have already arrived, hot stone rice is on the way, and the menu has made its intentions fairly clear.
32 East, which opened at The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in East Delhi a little over a year ago, is described as a Southeast Asian restaurant, but the menu is much broader than that suggests. It includes Japanese sushi and sashimi, Chinese-style dim sum, Sichuan flavours, Thai curries and noodles, as well as momo and wok-tossed vegetables. The culinary team said this was deliberate. “The idea was never to restrict the cuisine to one geography, but to explore the diversity of Asia through three expressions—Nostalgia, Traditional Asian, and New Age Asian.
That breadth sounds ambitious on paper. In practice, it translates into a style of eating that feels quite familiar to Delhi now: several dishes in the middle, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and no real obligation to stay loyal to one cuisine.
Familiar, But Not Entirely Predictable
The Crispy Vegetable Sushi was an easy place to start.
The tempura-fried uramaki came finished with tanuki and tonkatsu sauce, giving it a crisp shell, a softer centre and enough sweetness and savouriness to make it immediately accessible. It was not restrained sushi, nor was it trying to be. Instead, it reflected the richer, more indulgent style that has become common across contemporary Asian restaurants in Delhi.
“We wanted the menu to have enough familiarity for guests to feel comfortable, but also enough variety to encourage exploration,” the culinary team said. The Edamame & Truffle Dumplings followed that logic closely. The starch dough was soft and slightly elastic, with a smooth filling of edamame and truffle. The truffle was present without completely taking over, while burnt chilli and ginger-soy added some heat and acidity at the edges. It was a familiar combination, but a reasonably balanced one.
The Jhol Momo Bowl was more distinctive. The steamed momo came sitting in a warm, aromatic curry with peanuts and golden garlic. The broth was fuller and more robust than the dishes that came before it, and the peanuts added a useful crunch to the dumplings’ softness. This was also the dish where the restaurant’s idea of mixing familiarity with discovery made the most sense. The momo itself needed no introduction; what changed the experience was everything around it.
The Dish You Have To Leave Alone
The Hot Stone Bowl Rice arrived sizzling.
Sticky rice, crispy potato and spring onion continued to cook against the hot stone after reaching the table, and the dish changed as it sat. The softer rice gradually developed toasted, crusty edges at the bottom, which were easily the best part.
The challenge was resisting the urge to start mixing it immediately.
The culinary team said dishes such as the table-side hot stone rice were meant to “introduce an element of surprise”. The surprise itself was fairly gentle, but the changing texture did make the dish more engaging than a standard bowl of rice.
Alongside it, the Stir-Fried Shiitake & Bok Choy was deliberately simple. The mushrooms were earthy, the bok choy still had some bite, and chilli-garlic sauce tied the two together without making the dish overly heavy. It also helped reset the palate after the richer dumplings and rice. By this stage, what worked about the meal was not that every dish was particularly unusual. Instead, it was the variation between them: crisp sushi, soft dumplings, broth, toasted rice and greens.
Then The Cocktails Took Over
The bar follows much the same logic as the kitchen: familiar formats with Asian references. Rishabh Tyagi, F&B Associate Director, said the idea was to create “a contemporary interpretation of Asia, with drinks that were distinctive without being complicated for the sake of it.”
The 32 East Mist was the lighter and more food-friendly of the two cocktails I tried. Gin, holy basil, mint, lime and ginger ale made it fresh, herbaceous and easy to drink alongside the meal.
The Smoky Island Old Fashioned went in the opposite direction. Walnut whisky, orange bitters and hazelnut cordial gave it more weight, while the smoke appeared mainly in the finish rather than dominating the drink from the start.
Tyagi said the team considered ingredients “not just for their flavour but also for the character they can bring to a drink. Turmeric adds warmth and earthiness, walnut brings depth and texture, while nori introduces a subtle savoury and umami note.” That approach was easier to understand in the Old Fashioned, where the walnut felt like part of the drink rather than simply an ingredient added to make the menu sound more Asian.
Chocolate At The Finish
Dessert was the 32 East Fiery Gobbler, a combination of dark chocolate ganache and whole-grain crunch. The ganache was dense and rich, but the crunchiness kept it from becoming monotonous. After several soft-textured dishes, that contrast was welcome.
By the end of dinner, the restaurant’s larger idea felt fairly straightforward. General Manager Harkaran Singh said 32 East was not meant to view Asian cuisine “through a single regional lens”. He added that the hotel wanted “to create a restaurant that could become a destination in its own right; one that gives diners a reason to travel to East Delhi for the experience.”
That is probably the more interesting question around 32 East: what is its takeaway? It is not a tightly focused restaurant built around one region or culinary tradition. Instead, it is broader, more flexible and clearly shaped around the way many diners now approach Asian food: order several things, share them, move between cuisines and let the table build itself. Some dishes are more distinctive than others, but the meal works best as a whole rather than as a search for one showstopper.
I went in expecting something more narrowly Southeast Asian. What I found was a restaurant far more interested in how a lot of Delhi now likes to eat Asian food: shared, familiar, polished and open to mixing things up. The takeaway is clear: 32 East works best as a flexible, contemporary Asian dining room, not a single-cuisine destination. That may be the point that matters most.
